


I Won't Go Quietly (I'm Bringing My Crown)

by fruitsoda



Category: South Park
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Drugs, Family Issues, Fluff, Gen, Guns, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Safe Haven, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-02-27 19:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18745960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruitsoda/pseuds/fruitsoda
Summary: Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman were the only two kids left in the Park Haven out of their friend group after Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski bailed only months prior. Kenny's family had left along with most of South Park. The survivors build walls around their small mountain town for safety precautions despite the Taken having yet to reach the borders of Colorado.What happens when the infection spreads fast enough that the Change goes undetected and Coli is overthrown years before predicted?





	1. Chapter 1

“The virus has finally reached the boarders of our state—“

Mr. Mahoney’s words seemed to wad together; they beat at unhearing ears like spitballs being shot through straws. Kenny McCormick wasn’t interested—he never really was whenever it came to the Changing World—as he stared down at his pen which he had stopped drumming loudly against the wooden desk. He pushed his lips together into a reedy line, lost in the thought of what he was going to scrape together to eat that night. He supposed that it was time to gather what he possibly could from the stores and wait out the Change altogether; the possibility of it made him feel more secluded than he already was.

“McCormick.” A voice called from beyond the haze and Kenny rolled his eyes, not wanting to continue listening to the world’s current disaster. “McCormick.” The voice said again though, this time, it was stronger than it formerly was.

“What?” The blonde boy barked, looking up from his blank sheet of notebook paper with a scowl before blinking quickly in reaction to his best friend’s expression—or who he labelled as his best friend—before apologizing profusely. “S—“

Eric chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets like he used to do when the world wasn’t in the middle of screwing itself over and Kenny felt ordinary again. “Don’t even apologize, Ken.” The brunette boy made a face and gave the lithe blonde a wide smirk.

“’Mista Bologna’ was talking about the Changing again.” Kenny disclosed almost immediately, spilling his frustrations out onto the table without a second thought, “Mind-numbing shit.” His tone revealed his annoyance with the situation—of the world’s situation.

“What about it?” Eric asked, quirking a brow in response to his friend’s irritation.

Kenny grumbled and placed his forehead against the table with a quiet thump of defeat, “It’s gonna Take Colorado in the next month.” He murmured.

“No way.” The bigger boy countered in denial which made the blonde smile by the slightest against the cool table top. “It can’t, we’re not _feeble_ like the Dakota’s or fuckin’ _Texas_ , it’s been two years and half the country’s already shut down and I’ll be damned if Coli gets Taken too.”

“Coli is already Taken, dude.” Kenny challenged, knowing Eric well enough to comprehend that debates were one of his skills along with the slight tinge of manipulation that came with it. He always knew his best friend would be a good lawyer someday but, then again, he hadn’t planned for the world to be Taken. It was Changing and it spread like a wildfire in the midst of a field of dry grass.

“No it isn’t, if Coli was Taken then why are we still in _school_ and not in a post-apocalyptic state of mind right now?” Eric retorted with a smug grin, almost knowing that Kenny would have an even better response to his argument.

“Fifty of us—out of the one thousand, mind you—come to school every day.” Kenny replied briskly, trying too hard to brush the subject off and continue with his life.

“But that’s only Park County High, Ken, what about South Park, huh? All the kids go to school there.” Came the reply and Kenny grinned to himself; he knew damn well what went on in the small mountain town the two lived in.

“South Park is abandoned at this point—everyone left in their Priuses for Florida to get on boats headed for Europe.” Kenny lulled, moving his head in slow circles to stretch his neck.

“Not abandoned but almost.” Eric smiled, “We’re still going strong.”

Kenny almost snorted before the second round of kids filed into class but there was only around three of them who looked tired beyond belief. “Only two of us.” He stated simply, his tone grim, before he stood up and swung his backpack over his shoulder.

“And?”

“Kyle and Stan are gone.” The blonde murmured while he walked towards the door of the classroom as Mahoney entered once more.

“Mr. McCormick, I must speak to you.” His tone of voice was formal and mature—Kenny lazily wondered what he’d done this time.

“Later, Bolog—Mahoney, I have to go home and check on my sister.” A fib, the McCormick family left long ago but it was the second eldest sibling who had decided to stay. Karen was sobbing as their parents dragged her out of the house. She had held the envelope addressed to her close but the comfort of the letter wasn’t enough to soothe her. She reached for him, her cheeks bright red from her screaming and sobbing for their parents to let her stay. Kenny had promised her that one day he’d find her—that one day they’d be family again.

A jab in his side brought him back from the memory with a grim smile as Eric spoke loudly, “I don’t know, Mahoney, Kenny isn’t really interested in what you have to say about the Changing.”

Kenny perked up instantaneously, “What about the Changing?”

Mahoney seemed to become more nervous than usual and the sight made Kenny’s stomach churn, “W-well, you know what I talked about today about the Changing reaching our boarders?” He asked and the lithe boy nodded slowly, “It’s already here.”

“What?” Eric almost exploded at the thought but Kenny shot out a hand and locked it in place as the other tried to approach.

“Calm down.” He warned, his voice shaking. “How do you know?”

Mahoney gave a smile and rolled up his sleeve to reveal a bite mark that was already getting infected. “They’re in the school.”

“When—“

Eric grabbed Kenny’s arm quickly before he turned and ran, dragging the blonde along with him in his panic. The smaller was almost surprised that he could run so fast before he remembered that the guy was built like a brick wall and played hockey most of his life. They raced through the school without glancing at the passing students who didn’t _feel_ like students anymore.

“Shit.” The brunette repeated continuously under his breath as they burst through the door to find the parking lot empty. “They got out.” Was the first thing he said as they stopped midstride causing Kenny to almost trip over his own feet.

“Why didn’t anyone tell us?”

“They tried to, McCormick, god—Broflovski and Marsh knew—they tried but we ignored them.” Was the only response he received from his friend.

They walked in silence, both the blonde and the brunette as the newly Taken followed them back to their home town.

 

A wall had been built around the town made of steel and wooden planks as the fifty who lingered in Park County gathered by the gates on Kenny and Eric’s arrival. They welcomed the two with guns raised in their direction with terse expressions on their grim faces.

“Drop your weapons.” The Mayor called, her blonde hair wrapped into a loose bun atop her head, but her voice was more of a snarl than anything.

Eric raised his hands up in surrender first as Kenny fumbled around with his hands in his pockets. He was checking to see if a handgun had been slipped into his pocket before he left Mahoney’s class that day. Eric nudged the blonde with a grunt, his voice low, “Stop it, stupid.” He warned quickly before looking back at the gate.

Kenny hesitated for a moment and then slowly began to raise his arms which made him smile nervously. “We don’t got nothin’ on us, Ms. Mayor.”

The blonde woman scoffed and made a motion with her hands causing the residents of the newfound Park Haven to lower their guns. Her gaze was sharp as she glared at the boys who stood idly in front of the gate before a cry rang out.

“Help me!” Kenny and Eric whirled around on their heels to catch sight of a man running towards them as he waved his arms frantically. He was wearing a backpack and thick clothing as he ran, “Please!”

The Mayor looked down at the two boys before she whistled, signaling the people to open the gates. She raised two fingers and made direct eye contact with her husband who nodded solemnly.

“Boys.” His voice caught their attention and they turned, having to tear their gaze away from the screaming man who was begging for their help. Kenny couldn’t move his feet and instead kept looking toward the man whose voice was beginning to fade. His crying and pleading pulled at the blonde’s heart strings, causing an aching pain to rise up from his stomach to his throat. He thought he might cry if he stayed put but he couldn’t help but listen; he couldn’t help but to think about the times when no one bothered to help him.

Eric grabbed the lithe boy’s arm and pulled on it only to find that his friend had dug his heels into the gravel of the road. He wouldn’t budge, that much was clear to him as he pulled again. Finally catching Kenny’s attention, they walked together into the gate before it closed behind them. The cry in the distance only seemed to get louder as Kenny closed his eyes, remembering the times when he cried for his father to stop only for it to fall onto deaf ears.

The banging on the fence followed soon afterwards as the man pleaded for safety by striking the steel over and over again in his fury. Kenny pretended not to hear; he pretended not to feel sorry for ignoring the man who begged for his life.

 

“Kenny.” Craig Tucker’s voice droned nonchalantly from behind him as if from a memory. “You going home or what?” The blonde closed his eyes and tried to send off a psychic signal to those around him to back off. “Kenny.” Craig called again.

The McCormick supposed that he wasn’t psychic after all, no matter how much he thought that he was. With a sigh, he turned to face the noirette whom he had considered a ‘friend’ for most of his life, “What do you want, Tucker?” He asked, forcing a lazy smile on his face as if things were fine. The world wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be and he couldn’t help but appreciate it sometimes.

Other times weren’t so easy, however, the gunshot that silenced the man’s cries was one of them. Kenny fought the urge to flinch as Eric departed away from his friend to find his mother who hadn’t attended the greeting and Craig took his place instead. “I want to know what happened at PCH, you know this, and you two are the only ones who go to school from the Haven now.”

Kenny didn’t respond and, instead, heaved a sigh, “Don’t you have a boyfriend to bother instead?” He questioned as he tried not to smile. “Cause I got a lot of stuff to do that doesn’t include company.”

“Damn, what’s got your panties in a wad, McCormick?” Craig retorted with a glower, his tone flattening out just like it did when the two were younger.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.” The noirette dragged out the word on the ‘u’ before a smile threatened to show itself on his face. Craig took a deep breath and the uncharacteristic sight was gone, “You guys got back a lot quicker than you usually do.” It was often, Kenny concluded, that Craig had to fight back a smile to keep himself safe from everything and everyone around him.

The blonde wondered if he ever felt angry for having to constantly hide himself away—his true self that only Kenny and Tweek Tweak seemed to notice. The McCormick boy chewed his lip for a second, considering the concept of spilling everything on his mind to one of his many friends that decided to stay in South Park.

Shaking his head, he continued to walk, trying to pick up the pace as he roamed the streets with Craig tailing him like a lost puppy. Kenny wondered if Tweek had finally got some sense in him and decided to leave. He doubted it, though, just like he doubted everything else. The people in his town were stubborn and he was grateful for that—well, at least some of the people.

Kenny remembered the bitter taste in his mouth when Stan and Kyle confronted him and Eric that day of November almost three months prior when they both announced their departure from Park Haven. Back then, the Haven hadn’t existed and Coli was still out of reach—Coli was safe—but only the ones who didn’t live in denial knew that it was time to leave—

 “Kenny?” Craig asks, tearing the blonde boy out of his thoughts and back into reality. He had managed to get to his home on the edge of Park Haven. “Kenny, you listening?”

Kenny offered a sheepish smile, “Yeah, I’m listening, Tucker, don’t worry.”

“Whatever.” The noirette replied with a roll of his cerulean eyes, “I’m gonna go find Eric, maybe he’ll tell me about PCH since _you_ have something against me.”

A guilt trip, common amongst people who never really got what they wanted, “Go ahead, I don’t give a shit, dude.” Kenny snorted, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stood in front the dump he had called a home. He was surprised that the fencing stretched that far but he supposed that the people who were left of the small mountain town actually cared about him.

Kenny shook his head at the thought, knowing damn well that the only person who truly cared was Eric Cartman. Looking at the door of his home, he pressed his hand to it, feeling the cold wood that had been covered in graffiti with a solemn expression on his face. Something told him that he would find Karen just like he had promised her.

He doubted it though, Eric always did whenever Kenny brought up the possibility of seeing his sister one last time before he died and became a reanimated corpse once a Taken transferred its disease into his frozen-in-time body. Kenny shivered, not liking the possibility of a half-rotted clone corpse making his heart beat once more.

The blonde sat on the steps outside of his house, not wanting to go inside and smell the familiarity of cigarette smoke and alcohol that stained the carpet and the furniture. He longed to, however, just as much as he wanted to hear Karen’s giggling as she played with her dolls. Kenny swallowed the lump that rose up his throat and shook his head as if to shake the memories away; she was safe and it was all that he wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

Eric Cartman sauntered home alone, seeing that Craig Tucker intercepted the brunette’s discussion with the blonde boy. He often questioned if Kenny missed his sister or his mother but hell knew the lithe boy didn’t miss his father. Eric yawned, pushing his hands into his pockets like old habits told him to, and began walking towards his home in sudden concern for his mother.

She didn’t attend the Greeting like everyone else did today and the thought worried him. He would’ve prayed for her safety but he didn’t believe in God—not since his friends decided to leave both he and Kenny behind. There was something about the walk back, just like there always was, and, impulsively, he looked behind him in hope to see the orange-clad boy walking with him; he found himself unaccompanied.

Eric felt a sense of eeriness in the way the ghosts of the town-goers roamed the streets, waving at the brunette with kind smiles on their faces. These people were still living but they were no longer in town—he doubted that they’ll ever be back, however, but it didn’t trouble him. The thought seemed ironic, the fact that he wouldn’t bat an eye whenever it came anyone outside of his three closest friends.

He chuckled at himself, the sound only coming out in wispy breaths despite his amusement. God knows the day that Kyle and Stan threatened to leave only to follow through with it; Kenny stayed home that day and refused to come out of his house until after their friends left. Eric looked down the street, trying to smooth out the pained look that he realized was playing on his features.

Kyle had sat on Kenny’s front step with Stan the night before; they hadn’t noticed that the blonde boy had snuck out his bedroom window and fled to Eric’s house. He looked like a mess when he battered against the door, urgently, in the middle of the night. Eric supposed that his best friend couldn’t handle what was to happen that morning and he couldn’t blame him. The McCormick boy left early that morning without folding the blankets on the couch and locking the door to sneak back into his home.

Kenny had told him that Kyle and Stan were leaning on each other on his step, they were sleeping, and for a moment, the world didn’t seem like it was ending. Maybe the worst part for him was the fact that his family had already left and he couldn’t handle his friends leaving too; Eric didn’t know but found himself constantly wondering.

 

The brunette stood at the step of his front door, staring at it for a long second in hesitation, before entering. The lights were off, just like they always were—the Cartman family’s generator had given out days ago despite its lack of usage—and the house was quieter than usual. The feeling of the silence creeping slowly across his skin didn’t make it any easier for the Cartman boy to walk into his own home.

“Mom?” Eric called through the thick uneasiness, “Are you here?” No response. For some reason, he wasn’t surprised but, in a way, he was. The boy closed the front door behind him causing the room to be flooded by darkness. “Mom?” He says again, this time louder than the first. “Damn it—this isn’t funny. You got me, alright?” The boy dug around in his jacket pockets in search of the white lighter Kenny had loaned him days before.

Finally. Eric let out a sigh of relief as his fingers enclosed around the smooth shape of the lighter before he pulled it out. The lighter sparked as he tried to ignite the flame, flooding the immediate area in a single flash of yellow light. The sense of security the lighter had given him was slowly waning as the lighter sparked two more times. “C’mon.” The impatience was clear in his tone along with the nervousness.

The flame enveloped the room with light for a second before it shrank into a slight illumination. “Mom?” Eric considered the possibility of his mother being another reanimated corpse. He envisioned his mother laying on the floor of her bedroom, half-naked, with her neck tore open brutally by a man who had been bitten prior to their little ‘affair’ and had changed mid-fuck. The boy scrunched up his nose in disgust at the thought, weighing it with the possibility of the woman fast asleep in her bed—the prior seemed more realistic, however.

Eric swore under his breath in dissatisfaction as he stomped up the stairs, no longer caring or afraid of the chance of a Taken being in the household. “Mom!” He called again, his voice loud with impatience and annoyance. If she was one of them, he’d leave her in the building with the door open; he’d let her overthrow the Haven.

Coli wasn’t safe, he realized and accepted this now.

It wasn’t like the boy carried around a weapon wherever he went like Kenny felt the need to; all he had was the lighter in his hand which was nothing compared to Kenny’s nailed baseball bat or the constant presence of his father’s pocket knife. The brunette scowled as he halted in front of his mother’s door, “Mom.” He knocked—more like banged, really—on the door. “I’m coming in.”

“Honey, don’t come in just yet.” Blinking, the Cartman boy took his hand off of the doorknob, struck with confusion and the sudden realization that his mother hadn’t been bitten to begin with. “I’m in the middle of something.” He released the gas on the lighter and the flame went out, throwing the hallway into darkness for a brief second before the door swung open to Mrs. Cartman’s room. The sudden light was blinding as the brunette flinched back, he wasn’t expecting his mother to respond at all to his prompting. Maybe she was the entire time but the silence beating his ears blocked it out.

 

He remained quiet, looking into the room as his eyes adjusted to the brightness of his mother’s room. “Why didn’t you come to the Greeting?” He heard himself ask, his tone urgent and worried, due to the words tumbling out without much thought as he stared at his mother who stood at the door only inches away from him.

“I was painting.” She replied with a loving smile and only then did Eric notice the paint smeared across her forehead and along the apron she wore; only then did he notice the mural that stretched from one corner of the room to the other. It was of Eric—not very surprising—and how he had remained the same despite the world that now surrounded him. “Do you like it?” Her tone of voice was hopeful as Eric’s gaze flickered from the painting-in-progress back to his mother.

He hesitated for a second too long, thinking about the distant figures in the background in the painting that made out of the shapes of Kyle Broflovski and Stan Marsh, and the woman deflated with a long sigh. The tired look in her eyes returned and any sign of light that had been there before was gone. Eric noticed this immediately and tried to make up for it, “Mom, I—“

“No, no, honey, it’s okay if you don’t like it.” She tried to pull a smile across her features only to fail; she had been working on it while he was at school and hadn’t expected him to return as early as he did. Her shoulders slumped by the slightest as she gave a caring smile.

It felt like a punch to the face, her remorseful features, and Eric flinched back as if he had been attacked. “I like it, mom, really, I do.” He sputtered, a sad smile tugging at the corners of his lips in apology for remaining quiet for so long. “I just hadn’t expected Kyle and Stan to be there.” He looked past her shoulder to see the outline of a Kenny McCormick just as far in the distance as his other friends were. Eric stood in the foreground, alone, with his hands shoved into his pockets and his head bowed. His hair fell into his eyes due to the position his head was in but the Cartman boy could only imagine that his eyes were closed.

Kenny stood on the left of Eric, just barely tangible against the crowd of Taken with a spiked baseball bat in his hands, while Stan and Kyle stood on the right, more visible to the sweeping glance than the McCormick was. Eric’s brows furrowed and a voice just beyond the haze that spoke to him beat uselessly on deaf ears; why was the orange-clad boy so much farther away than his other friends? The thought stuck like glue. Did his mother know more than Eric did? Was she hiding things from him or did she just notice the way that Kenny has been spending more and more time alone?

 

A tap on his shoulder brought him back from the unanswered questions that drummed ruthlessly at his skull. He blinked in response, “What?” He questioned, the word leaving his lips more aggressively than he thought it had. His mother had returned to her room but the door remained open as she continued to paint, allowing her son to watch her as she began to smear paint along the mural with her bare hands, blending colors together like magic.

“You ever heard of the term, chill the fuck out?” Craig Tucker—surprisingly—droned from behind him. “You didn’t answer the door when I knocked so I let myself in.” The noirette stated this matter-of-factly, uncaring if it bothered the boy in front of him.

“No, never, my panties are eternally in a twist; you didn’t know?” Eric’s voice left him in a considerably annoyed tone that would soon get on Craig’s nerves but that’s what the brunette thought was amusing; breaking the monotonous voice enough that emotions would leak out. A twisted game, that’s what Kenny called it, but Eric never seemed to get tired of it. Manipulation was his thing, he supposed, and that was one of his major ‘negative’ strengths—or so it was called before the world turned into a shit storm crawling with the re-animated—but it was now considered something helpful.

It was what let Kenny and Eric out of the Haven to go to school, what let the two boys do whatever they wanted once Stan and Kyle departed from Colorado in a state of fear. Eric had called them pussies and told them to never come back—he told them that he hoped they were satisfied with themselves for leaving Kenny behind. Eric pretended that it didn’t feel like a blow to the stomach whenever their leaving from South Park came around. He pretended not to care that Kyle didn’t want to go but his mother was making them. Eric had called them traitors, cowards, but he was only projecting the fact that he had decided to stay.

“Yeah, I can tell.” Craig brushed the tone of his voice off with ease, stuck in a distant state of mind. Eric turned around to face the other, finding that the Tucker was finally taller than him—much to his disliking. How long had it been since he’s actually seen Craig? He didn’t want to question it any more than he was supposed to.

“You’re here for something, what is it?” Eric asked, the sound of his voice cutting into the long seconds of silence.

Craig shrugged in return, “I’m here because Kenny won’t tell me anything about school.” Eric scoffed in reply and opened his mouth to speak but the Tucker boy kept on talking. “You guys’re back a lot earlier than usual. It’s why Mrs. Mayor pulled the guns on you. It’s hardly eleven, you guys left less than three hours ago.”

Eric raised a curious brow at Craig’s sudden blurting of questions, “Don’t you have a boyfriend to bother?” He questions and the noirette’s features darken as if saying that was equal to stepping on already stubbed toes.

“That’s what Kenny said too.” He says, frustration finally peaking in his tone before he lets out a loud groan and turns around. “It’s like you guys are dating or something.” He says, his back still turned to the Cartman boy for a long moment. “He’s picking up on your shitty attitude.”

Eric snorted, “Kenneth James McCormick wishes he were dating me. Too bad I’m straight because I’d definitely go after him.” This caused Craig to turn around with a glower before he rolled his eyes and ambled down the stairs, his left hand raised with his middle finger up. “Fuck you too, Tucker, tell The Tweaker I said ‘hi’.”

 

He lay on his bed, three cartons of orange juice within reach as Eric glanced around his room. The first word that came to mind was dirty though it wasn’t as surprising as one might think it’d be. The Cartman boy’s room was never clean to begin with but this was something that would soon lead to hoarding if he weren’t about to leave The Haven.

Old cans of Blue Ribbon and Mountain Dew lay across the floor along with wrappers, crumpled up pieces of paper, piles of dirty laundry, and dishes with old food stuck to them like glue. Despite this, the rest of it was relatively clean due to the fact that it all was pushed towards the walls, leaving room in the middle of his bedroom bare where Kenny used to sleep in a bundle of beat up blankets.

His closet was worse than this, however, and it was filled to the brim with junk he had accumulated over the years of his life. Even though he hadn’t cleaned in a while, at least he accepted this part of him without any problem or denial. He was lazy, big deal.

Reaching into his pockets, Eric pulled out his phone which was still in working order due to half the country still being functional despite the rise of the undead. He dialed Kenny’s number only to receive loud beeping in his ear along with a voice that told him service was no longer provided due to a ‘zombie apocalypse’.

“Cheap.” He muttered, “No one’s gonna fucking believe that there’s a zombie apocalypse—“

“Sweetie?” His mother’s voice interrupted along with a knocking on the door. “The Mayor is here for you.” She sounded anxious, “She’s downstairs with your little friend Kenny, and she says it’s very important that you meet with her.”

“Shit.” Had they found out already? Was the safety of The Haven gone? “Coming.” Eric had packed a bag—a large one at that—and had his friends do the same. They were leaving tonight with Tweek and Craig. The mayor stood in the way of that… what had Kenny told her already?


	3. Chapter 3

Kenny stood anxiously across the room from the Mayor who sat impatiently as she tapped her heeled foot against the carpeted floor. The consistent thumping sound that her heels made matched well with the McCormick boy’s beating heart. The Mayor had picked him up from his house, ordering the blonde who sat idly on his front step to get into the sleek black car. They had sat in silence after that despite Kenny’s nervous presence who couldn’t quite sit still in the back seat of the car—he was too afraid to sit next to her in the passenger seat.

The sound of Eric grumbling to his mother from the top of the stairs was enough to soothe the McCormick boy and he no longer stood stiffly and, instead, relaxed. Craig didn’t get a chance to leave the house before the woman and her too-many-to-count bodyguards barged in without knocking. She had ordered Craig to sit at the dining room table and overhear the conversation as a witness either to Kenny and Eric’s side or to her own.

Kenny and Craig had exchanged a few glances before Mrs. Cartman wandered out of her room only to find uninvited guests in her home. The Mayor—or Mrs. Levi—had barked instructions at her like the female dogface she was. Kenny smiled at the recalling of the image he had thought up but it soon faded as Eric stomped down the stairs.

The brunette refused to meet his gaze and instead met eye to eye with Mrs. Levi who stared him down with a cold glare. “Sit down, Eric Theodore Cartman.” She says and the command is carried out by the Cartman boy who sits in a recliner in the corner of the room, across from Kenny but as far away as possible from Mrs. Levi.

“You wanted to talk to me?” Eric asks, brushing off the confused glances from his friends, “Make it quick because I was going to take a nap.” The bigger boy says this with ease, speaking as if he were talking to one of his close friends. Maybe it was because he didn’t care whether or not Mrs. Levi was the top-dog of the Haven, Kenny didn’t know but the concept worried him.

“Well, Eric,” The Mayor began, taking her hair out of the tight bun that sat atop her head. Kenny watched the blonde locks flow down her shoulders and tried not to notice the scent of flowers that she seemed to unleash, “I came here to talk with all of you.” She says with a plastic smile.

The door burst open as Tweek Tweak stumbled in, “H-hey—!” He says but the door slams on his face before he could say anything else. Craig is quick to approach his side and grab his left hand, “Craig?” The blonde boy questions, confused that he was here with Eric and Kenny but he’s pulled out of the living room and into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” He whispers quiet enough that Kenny has to strain his ears to hear their conversation.

“Sit down Craig and if Tweek has any questions let him ask me; I have all the answers, you should know this.” Kenny took a deep breath at Mrs. Levi’s words; she didn’t know jack shit about any of them. He wouldn’t even refer to the platinum blonde woman as a mayor and instead took the liking to refer to her as a _dictator_.

The blonde boy almost snorted at the thought but Craig cut him off, “I beg to differ.” His tone was flat but not enough to disguise the anger that underlined his words.

“Cr-Craig— _shut up_.” Tweek hissed, his grip on the Tucker boy’s hand tightening by the slightest.

Mrs. Levi raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak but Eric beat her to it, “She came here to talk to me, you guys, I don’t need you butting into this conversation. Mrs. Mayor?” He asks, reflecting the quizzical look on Mrs. Levi’s face right back at her, “What did you want to talk about, now that I’ve gotten our witnesses to shut the hell up.”

“Well,” Mrs. Levi stood up as she began, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her left ear, and started walking around as if she were going to address every kid who sat in the Cartman household, “I heard from a few little birdies that you four are planning on leaving The Park Haven.” She glanced around, trying to receive eye contact with everyone who refused to meet her gaze; only Kenny was spiteful enough at this information to lock gazes with her.

“That so?” Eric questions, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Levi.” Kenny inhaled sharply as Mrs. Levi approached him, her forest green eyes mimicking those of a predator.

“Maybe you’re little blonde friend does.” She says as Kenny imagined her striking at her prey that just so happened to be the McCormick boy that stood here. “Kenneth?” Mrs. Levi drawls, “Do you know something about this?” Kenny couldn’t seem to look away from her and the way that she stared him down gave him the idea that she didn’t want to either. The memory of his lips against her skin on the main bedroom of her up-town estate snuck behind his eyelids every time he blinked, “Well?” She prompts again as the blonde boy starts backing up the closer she got.

Eric cleared his throat, snapping Kenny out of his trance as he looks over at the brunette, no longer aware of the predatory look in Mrs. Levi’s eyes, “I’m sure Kenny doesn’t have a clue, either.” He lulls, rolling his head from side to side to stretch his neck.

Kenny clears his throat for a long second, “No clue.” He doesn’t dare to look at the woman in front of him again, “Sorry, Mrs.”

Mrs. Levi looks away from Kenny and the tension between the two seems to die right then and there. “Craig, Tweek, do you know of something?” She asks and Tweek seems to get smaller at this question. The Tucker boy grips the tweaker’s hand, leaning over to whisper something in his boyfriend’s ear that was too soft for Kenny to hear.

“No.” Tweek says quietly and shakes his head, holding his breath in effort to avoid confessing everything to the woman who seemed to drill him with her eyes. Craig repeats this as a confirmation and Mrs. Levi shifts her gaze back to Eric who sat with a smug smile on his face but it soon fades at the look on her face.

“I don’t appreciate you boys keeping secrets from me but if you were to leave The Haven, just know that you are never to come back; we don’t accept traitors.”

 

She had left soon afterwards and her crowd of body-guards left with her; they departed in five identical cars that were black and sleek like the one that Kenny had ridden in—“What the hell, Kenny?” This brought the McCormick boy from his thoughts and back into the present situation. “What did you fucking tell her?” It was Eric that had suddenly exploded on him, his words were loud and harsh; like a rabid dog barking at someone who had walked by at the wrong time.

“Nothing!” Kenny fired back, turning away from the window to find Eric had already squared himself up to the taller boy in attempt to make himself seem bigger than he already was. “I didn’t say shit, okay? She probably found out from Tweek’s parents or Craig’s butt-ugly dad!"

This seemed to only make Eric angrier, “It was you, don’t even try to blame it on Craig and Tweek, alright?”

“You know what? Fuck you, Eric, I have no one to tell and if you’re so fucking sure that it was me, I’ll leave on my own.” Kenny had barged out of the door, his hands closed into tight fists with the brunette boy calling out to him; it wasn’t only Eric, it was Craig and Tweek also. Hesitating, Kenny slowed to a stop, just barely approaching the sidewalk, and turned to face the three boys who were pleading at him to stay.

“I’m sorry.” Eric says suddenly, standing at the doorway, “Alright? I just—“

“You just what, Eric?” Kenny interjects, his arms folded across his chest, “Doubted me?”

“No. Yes, I did.” The admission of Eric’s fault were surprising; Kenny had never heard the brunette own up and take accountability before.

Kenny stared for a long second before a grin begins to spread across his features. “Shit, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize before.”

“Don’t make me regret it.” Eric snapped, features flushing from what seemed like embarrassment.

Craig’s cough takes the blonde’s attention away from watching Eric shake his head. “Can you guys kiss and make up already?” Kenny could almost swear he could hear a smile in the tone but doesn’t hold on to that uncharacteristic sound for too long. He stood behind Eric at the doorway.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” The McCormick boy snorts and waltzes over to the bigger boy and pretends to punch him in the face. “A kiss with a fist.” He smirked. Eric rolls his eyes and grabs his wrist, forcing it behind his back along with the other as if he were just arrested.

“Don’t try that again, smartass.” The brunette warns, releasing Kenny before he could start whining that his arms hurt.

“We leave tonight.” Craig reminds as he shoved past the two boys, his right hand occupied by Tweek’s hand, “Me and Tweek are gonna pack our stuff and meet you outside the gate.” He says this as a statement, as if there were no arguing about where the two boys were going to be. He meets Eric’s gaze with a challenging look before the

“Don’t forget to touch dicks before you come and see us, kay, guys? Don’t want you necking in the backseat of my car.”

**Author's Note:**

> Been a while since I wrote something for South Park, huh? Well, you're welcome.


End file.
